Conventionally, jet stack manufacturers use humpback continuous belt driven furnaces to braze jet stacks. The brazing process involves alloying together about 16 to 22 plates that have previously been bonded together using a high pressure bond press. The brazing process combines the 16 to 22 bonded plates into a single, fused-together, hermetically sealed plate. The fused-together plate yields a brazed jet stack for use in a printer. The brazed jet stack includes aligned channels within the fused plate for squirting ink out.
The humpback furnace is bulky and expensive. In addition, the continuous belt driven nature of the humpback furnace causes a dirty environment and can lead to metal contamination. Other challenges include lack of process control interfaces or visibility of process control parameters, which impose high maintenance burdens on operators, engineers, or other skilled technicians whose job duties often include the smooth operation of the equipment. The lack of a process control interface makes the humpback furnace difficult to monitor while in production. These, and other problems associated with the humpback furnace, can lead to decreased yields and increased costs. Further, the humpback furnace creates safety concerns and has earned the nick name “fire breathing dragon” due to occurrences of flames shooting into the clean room, which can potentially injure operators who may be standing nearby. The humpback furnace also makes inefficient use of hydrogen gas, thereby driving operational costs up even more.
The foregoing and other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.